Acupuncture—either sham or real—is beneficial in treating patients with chronic low back pain, according to a new study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.¹

In the study of 298 patients with chronic back pain, those who received acupuncture or minimal acupuncture (superficial needling at non-acupuncture points) showed a decrease in low back pain intensity from baseline to the end of week 8. Specifically, pain intensity decreased by 28.7 mm (± 30.3) in the acupuncture group, 23.6 mm (± 31.0) in the minimal acupuncture group, and 6.9 mm (± 22.0) in the waiting list group. The difference for the acupuncture versus minimal acupuncture group was 5.1 mm (P = .26) while the difference for the acupuncture versus the waiting list group was 21.7 mm (P <.001). At 26 and 52 weeks, pain did not differ significantly between the acupuncture and the minimal acupuncture groups, the study showed.

"Our findings provide further evidence that patients with chronic low back pain who receive acupuncture experience clinically relevant benefits compared with patients receiving no acupuncture treatment," write the researchers, led by Benno Brinkhaus, MD, of the Institute of Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics of Charité University Medical Center in Berlin, Germany. "However, the results also suggest that the correct location of needles plays only a limited role."

In this study, acupuncture and minimal acupuncture were administered by specialized acupuncture physicians in 30 outpatient centers. The protocol consisted of 12 sessions per patient over 8 weeks. Patients completed standardized questionnaires at baseline, 8, 26, and 52 weeks after randomization. The primary outcome variable was the change in low back pain intensity from baseline to the end of week 8, as determined on a visual analog scale.

Acupuncture may become more common treatment for pain

"I think the findings are probably consistent with other studies that show acupuncture is more effective than the wait-list control group for the relief of pain," explains Marc C. Hochberg, MD, MPH, professor of medicine and head of the division of rheumatology and clinical immunology at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland. Moreover, he adds, the new findings show that "it's very hard to differentiate between true acupuncture and sham acupuncture unless you have large numbers of patients, because we see a substantial response to sham acupuncture," Dr. Hochberg tells CIAOMed.

Dr. Hochberg predicts that acupuncture may have an increasing role in the treatment of pain. "I think it's useful as an adjunctive treatment in patients with chronic pain and that we will be seeing more referrals to certified licensed acupuncturists. More rheumatologists will learn how to practice acupuncture and be able to incorporate it into their practice—particularly those interested in the management of patients with chronic pain syndromes."

Reference

1. Brinkhaus B, Witt CM, Jena S, et al. Acupuncture in patients with chronic low back pain. Arch Intern Med. 2006;166:450-457.